Article excerpt

IT was revealed over the weekend that California's budget deficit
is much deeper than feared. Naturally, Gov. Jerry Brown says this is
all the more reason for state voters to approve higher taxes. But is
it?

No, no, 15.7 billion times no.

In fact, learning that Sacramento's fiscal management is even
worse than previously believed should only make it harder to
persuade taxpayers to send more money to the capital.

The latest development underscores the message Californians ought
to be delivering to their government: Before we bail you out, you'd
better show us you've done everything you can to limit spending.

Brown and the Legislature had been hoping that a growing economy
would pump more cash into the tax coffers, shrinking the deficit,
last projected at $9.2 billion.

Instead, Brown was forced to concede Saturday that lagging tax
receipts have left the state $15.7 billion in the hole. He blamed
the slower-than-expected economic recovery. Also, he said, court
rulings have prevented some hoped-for cuts.

In a YouTube talk on the matter, the governor announced the new
deficit and then waited a dignified 25 seconds before spinning it
into a pitch for his tax-hike initiative.

Brown's ballot initiative, scheduled to go before voters in
November, would raise an estimated $6.8 billion in the 2012-13
fiscal year through temporary increases in the sales tax and the tax
rate for people making $250,000 or more.

A competing initiative backed by Pasadena attorney Molly Munger,
estimated to raise $10 billion to $12 billion a year, would spread
the pain over more income levels and more years and aims more
specifically to make up the funding shortfall for schools. …